This is one of the data gathering methodologies and recommendations for base setup improvement. The full list is defined in the Base Setup Recommendations topic here.
Note: These recommendations are valid for systems without In-Memory. The performance costs are different with In-Memory. For more information, see the In-Memory Database Component for STEP section of the Resource Materials in online help here.
The data model of STEP is very flexible and allows for complex data model setups. While the data model is designed and set up based on business requirements, the data model should also avoid unnecessary complexity and ensure optimal performance. A complex data model can have a negative impact on the general performance.
Important: For performance reasons, do not over-design the data model since a complex data model requires more extensive processing. Also, use the 'Manually Sorted' parameter on product objects and entities sparingly. For more information, see the Attribute Groups topic in the System Setup / Super User Guide documentation here.
The following example data models highlight the strengths of various approaches for achieving the business requirements.
Data Containers
Consider a required 'Company' entity that has a visiting and distribution address with country, city, street, and zip code. The addresses can be defined using one of the following methods:
- Attributes directly on the 'Company' entity, such as visiting address street, visiting address city, distribution address zip code, etc.
- A separate 'Address' entity for each address type (e.g., 'visiting address' and 'distribution address'), street, city, zip code, etc., and reference the 'Company' to the 'Address.'
- Two data containers 'Visiting Address' and 'Distribution Address' with country, city, street, zip code, etc.
The preferred data model to use is likely the data containers, since:
- Reusing the same address over multiple companies is minimal. Therefore, the data model with the 'Address' as a separate entity is unnecessarily complex.
- Some companies might not have a 'Distribution Address,' making the usage of separate attributes on 'Company' somewhat inflexible.
Product References
Consider that a product belongs to one product family in most cases, but in some exceptional cases might also belong to another product family. The products can be defined using one of the following methods:
- The product in the blue hierarchy belongs to a parent product family in the blue hierarchy. For the exceptional cases (where the product also belongs to another product family), a product reference is used where the product is also related to the other product family.
- The product-override is used where the product-overrides are alternate versions of products and product families that may have differing values, references, links, and structures. Attributes and values applied to the product family are inherited to the product-override and can be replaced with local values and references on the product-override.
The preferred data model to use is likely the product reference, when inheritance of the second product family is not required, since it is less complex.